Like Tree450Likes

Sunday helpers are a nuisance

Closed Thread
Page 3 of 35 FirstFirst 1 2 3 4 5 6 11 ... LastLast
  1. #21

    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    Sai Kung
    Posts
    8,561
    Quote Originally Posted by Skyhook:
    To be quiet honest, if these helpers pulled this stunt in majority of western countries they would been set upon by the the mounted police with pepper spray at the ready. the public space laws cater for EVERYBODY, not a select group....

    I feel that HK people have been more than tolerant regarding this, especially all the litter that these people leave behind every Sunday, that govt has to quickly clean up by the next morning. That costs the tax payer extra money in manpower as a result.

    Why cant the helpers put their rubbish in the bin or take it away with them like any respectable person would ?
    have you ever visited the bbq sites late sunday night/early monday morning? if using the bin is your gauge for respectability, then there doesn't seem to be a single respectable person in hk.

    the bbq sites are a disgusting mess friday nights, saturday nights and sunday nights....and while there are occasional groups of helpers having a bbq, i would hazard a guess and say that 99% of the folks using the sites are local.

  2. #22

    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Posts
    1,845

    I think she is wrong in saying that the DHers want equal right to those of HK citizens. If anything they just want basic rights to live here if eligible.
    As for poor Bonnie, she is causing such a nuisance to those DHers legally congregating in Central on Sunday. Why would she want to cause an obstruction with her stroller.
    And on a final note, anyone is legally entitled to go and congregate in Central on Sunday as far as I am aware...they dont discriminate against people like Bonnie.


  3. #23

    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    Ex Sai Kunger Sunny Qld for now
    Posts
    8,318
    Quote Originally Posted by carang:
    have you ever visited the bbq sites late sunday night/early monday morning? if using the bin is your gauge for respectability, then there doesn't seem to be a single respectable person in hk.

    the bbq sites are a disgusting mess friday nights, saturday nights and sunday nights....and while there are occasional groups of helpers having a bbq, i would hazard a guess and say that 99% of the folks using the sites are local.
    Yes I agree with you, most people in HK are pigs when it comes to littering national parks and public BBQ pit/spaces. That I cant disagree with, it seems to be an Asian habit ( Japanese excepted ) The few that do clean up and leave these places the way they found them, are very few and far between.
    Last edited by Skyhook; 21-11-2011 at 09:47 AM.
    dear giant, Dreadnought and PDLM like this.

  4. #24

    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    HK
    Posts
    1,781

    re the state of picnic sites. Look at your neighbood Mcdonalds. Very few people take their own trays to toss their garbage. They are all waiting for the one or two McD staff to do it for them. This really astounds me since when they themselves sit down the table is a mess since the one before them failed to exercise some common courtesy. Many HK residents are lazy assed selfish pigs. To the pushcart lady - get a baby Bjorn next time you want to venture anywhere cause your 50 lb pushcart is getting in people's way.

    dear giant and nurse_maria like this.

  5. #25

    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Posts
    1,369

    The noise, crowding, and littering on Sundays are an externality of HK's domestic helper system.

    Raising the DHs' minimum wage to at least the minimum that locals would receive, making their wages hourly with real oversight to rein in attempts at shortchanging them, requiring employers to have a separate room of a minimum size (larger than the sorts of crawlspace-with-toilet-water-hose-and-drain that I've seen) or to pay extra for live-out rent, and a couple of other measures would solve the problem -- mostly because far, far fewer people could afford (or would be willing to foot the bill) for personal servants.

    The real issue is that locals themselves are so used to being treated like crap and living under crap conditions that they don't see anything wrong with the DH system.

    Requiring decent accommodations for DHs, for example, will be a hard sell so long as HK still allows HKers to live in cages, subdivided flats, etc. That's a tacit government policy since they are aware of the problem but still, year after year, aren't building sufficient public housing. Beyond that, HKers are squeezed into too-small homes so those that do want to have helpers. That's also an unwritten govt policy since commercial real estate developers are basically in competition with public housing to a certain degree and the govt-mandated square-footage-per-person numbers for public housing are tiny -- if the govt doubled those figures and, henceforth, built much larger public housing flats but charged the same rents, developers would be forced to follow suit. That would burst the bubble of the "HK is a small, small place" myth, though -- since the government would have to start building on all of the empty space that they claim doesn't exist but which is clearly visible on Google Maps/Earth from one's window when one drives around. Yup, lots of it (but far from all) is hilly/mountainous, but that doesn't mean that it can't be built upon. The problem is, of course, that the real estate developers would be minting money at a lower rate under those conditions and that's something that can't be permitted to happen.


  6. #26

    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Posts
    6,745

    Bonnie goes to Central for her "only day of rest in peace "?
    Even without the helpers there it is just wroooom, zooom, wrooom.
    ding.dong. tack,tack,tack.
    I can only spend 90 minutes there, max, on a weekday.

    Last edited by Morrison; 21-11-2011 at 10:23 AM.
    nurse_maria likes this.

  7. #27

    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Tuen Mun
    Posts
    6,191
    Quote Originally Posted by threelittlepigs:
    They are all waiting for the one or two McD staff to do it for them.
    Why don't you cook your own burgers as well then nobody will have jobs! Think harder..

  8. #28

    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    Everywhere you don't want me to be
    Posts
    2,890

    I dunno about nuisance. Myself and quite a few other expats have been rather pleased with Sunday helpers. It's how I met my wonderful, loving wife.

    luckycat and wena like this.

  9. #29

    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Kent, England
    Posts
    6,728
    Quote Originally Posted by threelittlepigs:
    re the state of picnic sites. Look at your neighbood Mcdonalds. Very few people take their own trays to toss their garbage. They are all waiting for the one or two McD staff to do it for them. This really astounds me since when they themselves sit down the table is a mess since the one before them failed to exercise some common courtesy. Many HK residents are lazy assed selfish pigs. To the pushcart lady - get a baby Bjorn next time you want to venture anywhere cause your 50 lb pushcart is getting in people's way.
    In Starbucks I was told firmly by a member of staff to leave my rubbish as it was someone's job to clear it! I was really surprised at this. In Japan where you would expect someone to be straight over to clear at fast-food outlets, you would clear it yourself.

  10. #30

    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    1,113
    Original Post Deleted
    Actually that pretty much is what the government in HK is doing! Have you see how many times over the years they dig up roads and pavements, the same ones, over and over and over again? Many parts of the mid levels seem to be a permanent construction zone...

Closed Thread
Page 3 of 35 FirstFirst 1 2 3 4 5 6 11 ... LastLast